Recruiting After Cancer

Don’t answer questions that aren’t asked. But always be honest. If anything about his routine needs to be explained away be honest. Definitely emphasize effort and character in coming back. Good luck.

First off, I'm vey happy for your son and his recovery and thanks for the story and advice!

I usually agree with most of what RJM says, but in this case, perhaps you should take pride in your son's situation and consider it an advantage as a battle of perseverance and determination.  After all, your son was not able to be seen last summer, so for many schools, he's not on their radar. 

If your son is interested in particular schools, now is the time to start emailing them to start a dialogue.  What better way to get their interest then to tell his story.  I think many coaches would be impressed and would want to take a look.  For those who think it's a bad thing, F them, you don't want to play for them anyhow.

Thanks for your story and best of luck to you and your son!!

I agree with CTBBALLDAD.   Tell the story.  It explains the loss of time and builds interest.  I think you use it as a positive and not a negative.   I think any coach would want to give him an extra look just because of his experience.  They may ask questions but at least they are talking to you. 

Wish him well.  Also encourage him to share his story with others.  Great for him and good for someone else. 

I can speak to a little of this - First off, I am thrilled that your son is doing well! Always good news to hear when someone perseveres. My son has Crohns' disease and has been getting regular IV infusions every 6 weeks since he was 8 years old. Due to this disease, he will most likely never be a "heavy" kid. He is a RHP - 6'0, 160. He lost 7 pounds in a month at the end of junior year high school baseball season during a rather grueling flare. It took a while for him to put that weight back on and he works out regularly. He was actively speaking with a coach at a D2 school and was very interested. He was offered a spot in summer of junior year and asked to come back in September for official visit. We talked about it as a family and thought that the time was right for him to be transparent about his disease and what his limitations might be when he went for the official visit.  Up until then , we felt like you did - maybe if they knew what he deals with on a daily basis and still maintains high academics and can throw a ball pretty well, maybe that would make more of an impression? All in all, our son had a conversation with the coach during his visit and when the coach approached us as parents to ask if we had questions, we asked if our son had spoken to him about the disease and he said he had and none of that mattered to him or worried him. He actually said he had a good friend who was battling the same thing and he completely understood and would do whatever was necessary for our son to stay healthy. Now, we have no idea how this will play out in the Fall when he steps on campus, but in the end, we feel comfortable knowing that coach is on board. I would wait until you have a clear picture of what school your son is really interested in and then you can decide as a family when the right time is. In the long run - you, your son and everyone else who is aware of his medical issue know the heart of what he has gone through and how he has overcome it.

Good luck to your son and I hope he continues to have good health!

Most important thing is your son caught it and seems to be doing well.  That's wonderful news.  In my opinion, you and your son should do what feels right and works best for your family.  I would tell you that one of my son's current college teammates has a line in his bio that says he's a cancer survivor. 

What were your son's measurables before the diagnosis? How hard was he throwing and what level was he interested in playing at? 

I guess I have a little different view on this.  Your primary question was how to address it with college coaches (in the recruiting process).  RC's are looking for guys who can play.  That is where any dialog will begin with them.  When/if conversation steers in a direction that his experience with cancer becomes relevant, then discuss it with the points of pride you and others have rightfully mentioned.  

I'm not saying this as if it is something that should be hidden - it shouldn't.  It's just not something I think you would likely bring up as one of the first topics of conversation when you first meet someone, regardless of the situation, right?   You get to know them and let the conversation flow where it may.  If, for example, you start talking about playing gaps, then bring it up.  Or, if you start talking about your current weight, bring it up.  For those conversations, it is relevant.  But there is no need to force it into early discussion points.  

Thank God, the cancer has been knocked.  So, from a baseball recruiting standpoint, it becomes a secondary point at best.  Again, they are looking for guys who can play.

That said, welcome to the site and we'll all be pulling for him!

Thanks to everyone for the good wishes and thoughtful replies. I really appreciate the points some of you made about letting him take the lead on how to share his story.  That's great advice. His coaches have suggested that while college programs might be put off, many will find his experience with overcoming adversity appealing. Mental toughness and character can be hard traits to measure.

on the question from PABASEBALL, last spring his fastball was sitting at 83 mph. In terms of his ambition for playing, I think he would want to play at the biggest school he possibly could. He knows the big D1s are out of reach but he hasn't yet given up on the idea of a small D1,  with several IFs yet to be answered. IF he gets back to the low 80s soon and IF he can grow from there and IF those things can happen within the recruiting window for his class, which might be the biggest IF of all.

Hats off to your young man! I’m so happy to hear that he’s on his way back to full health. 

I can’t see any coach not recruiting him because of his experience with cancer. If so, he probably wouldn’t want to play for that guy anyway. 

Your son is an inspiration and I wish him the very best this season and beyond. 

D2020 posted:

Thanks to everyone for the good wishes and thoughtful replies. I really appreciate the points some of you made about letting him take the lead on how to share his story.  That's great advice. His coaches have suggested that while college programs might be put off, many will find his experience with overcoming adversity appealing. Mental toughness and character can be hard traits to measure.

on the question from PABASEBALL, last spring his fastball was sitting at 83 mph. In terms of his ambition for playing, I think he would want to play at the biggest school he possibly could. He knows the big D1s are out of reach but he hasn't yet given up on the idea of a small D1,  with several IFs yet to be answered. IF he gets back to the low 80s soon and IF he can grow from there and IF those things can happen within the recruiting window for his class, which might be the biggest IF of all.

I might be inclined to agree with his coaches. Some schools might be put off for fear of health issues down the line. Not much you can do about that. Which is why I would let your son's play speak for itself and when it comes up it comes up. I'm sure there are some coaches who might see it as a positive. Hey look how well this kid is performing and he's just getting back into it. I think you have some good advice from RJM and Cabbage. Don't lead with it, but I would not shy away from it if it were to come up. 

As for the baseball. Don't rush into anything. Let him get back to 100% as he feels comfortable. See how he's throwing in May/June and go from there. Recruiting isn't happening until after the HS season ends so he has all summer and some of the fall months to get in front of some schools. Good Luck

hopefulmom posted:

I can speak to a little of this - First off, I am thrilled that your son is doing well! Always good news to hear when someone perseveres. My son has Crohns' disease and has been getting regular IV infusions every 6 weeks since he was 8 years old. Due to this disease, he will most likely never be a "heavy" kid. He is a RHP - 6'0, 160. He lost 7 pounds in a month at the end of junior year high school baseball season during a rather grueling flare. It took a while for him to put that weight back on and he works out regularly. He was actively speaking with a coach at a D2 school and was very interested. He was offered a spot in summer of junior year and asked to come back in September for official visit. We talked about it as a family and thought that the time was right for him to be transparent about his disease and what his limitations might be when he went for the official visit.  Up until then , we felt like you did - maybe if they knew what he deals with on a daily basis and still maintains high academics and can throw a ball pretty well, maybe that would make more of an impression? All in all, our son had a conversation with the coach during his visit and when the coach approached us as parents to ask if we had questions, we asked if our son had spoken to him about the disease and he said he had and none of that mattered to him or worried him. He actually said he had a good friend who was battling the same thing and he completely understood and would do whatever was necessary for our son to stay healthy. Now, we have no idea how this will play out in the Fall when he steps on campus, but in the end, we feel comfortable knowing that coach is on board. I would wait until you have a clear picture of what school your son is really interested in and then you can decide as a family when the right time is. In the long run - you, your son and everyone else who is aware of his medical issue know the heart of what he has gone through and how he has overcome it.

Good luck to your son and I hope he continues to have good health!

Thank you for this. Your son sounds pretty damned impressive. My son will be glad to hear his story.

BTW 2019 RHP Josh Cohen is a UCONN commit and cancer survivor.

Good luck. Good he caught is early. I'm also currently battling testicular cancer but unfortunately it wasn't caught as early. It is still curable much much tougher and higher risk now for me with at least two surgeries pending. 

Didn't notice it until i had back pain.

I think he just needs to get healthy now then he can worry again about baseball. 

Dominik85 posted:

Good luck. Good he caught is early. I'm also currently battling testicular cancer but unfortunately it wasn't caught as early. It is still curable much much tougher and higher risk now for me with at least two surgeries pending. 

Didn't notice it until i had back pain.

I think he just needs to get healthy now then he can worry again about baseball. 

Wow. I'm so sorry to hear that. Some people get out of it with only one surgery, but we weren't quite that lucky. Fortunately, there are lots of effective treatments. One of the people who emerged as a survivor after our son was diagnosed was a young guy who had played college ball and coached in a program where my son played for a while. He didn't catch it until it was pretty far along, so surgery wasn't an option, but the chemo regimen was very effective. A year+ later and he's feeling great. Wishing you good luck.

Thank you all again. It really is helpful to have this much experienced insight. It's hard for our son (okay, and me, too) to stay patient and take it slowly. 

We'll see how things go from here. Fortunately, he's got a good summer team lined up with a coach who knew him well enough to save him a roster spot without doing the fall tryout. If he can stay on his current course, summer ball could be good. We just won't have the kind of immediate track record/measurables to share and get coaches motivated to go see him at the summer tournaments.

That's part of why I was asking my question on this forum. Heading into the summer, it's possible that his return from cancer will be the only story he's got to tell.

Anyway, thanks again. This has been great.

I'm so glad your son is healthy! As an aside, my former neighbor had testicular cancer in college.  He's 50 something now with 5 kids and very healthy and happy.  Good luck to your son. 

I wanted to revive this thread to share some news. Earlier this week, my son committed to a terrific D1 mid-major that's a great match for him. It happened 12 months almost to the day after the doctor visited us in his hospital room to say the surgery had succeeded and there were no further signs of cancer. It's been amazing to see him recover and reclaim his pitching career and I'm grateful for this community. Your advice on this thread and others has always been enormously helpful, even if I took most of it in as I lurked. He's on to the next BIG challenge.

Amazing, that's great news to hear, thanks for sharing D2020.  Congratulations to your courageous son!

Fantastic.

Great News! Congrats and best of luck to your son. 

This is awesome! So glad to hear news like this in today's world. Best of luck to all!